Big Tech Datacenters Double Emissions, Exceed France’s Carbon Footprint
The collective carbon emissions of Microsoft, Amazon, and Google have significantly increased by almost a fifth in the past year, primarily due to extensive data center construction. This surge, totaling 119 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in the last fiscal year, is largely attributed to the booming demand for cloud services driven by AI and chatbot development. Experts suggest that claims of “green” cloud services are often marketing ploys, as companies effectively outsource their carbon footprint to these tech giants, obscuring their own environmental impact while data center construction and associated power demands escalate globally.
John Q. Hosedrinker